Joss David Hunter
afterschoolstill.jpg

Roleplayer: Cobalt


Date of Birth: July 7, 1996
Phase: Vitra
Gift: Regeneration
Calling: Judgment's Calling
Pack: Rogue


Appearance

Joss is thirteen years old, but obviously looks a little younger. His hair is perpetually unkempt due to the lack of any nearby maternal figures with their foolish womanly sensibilities about brushing and cutting one's hair. He worries not about his clothing, being above such foolish superficial questions. The worth of a man is not in his garments, but in the courage of his heart!


Wolf

In wolf form, Joss possesses the strength and length of limb of an adult, but still has the large feet and sudden bursts of energy as a puppy. His fur is an unbroken blaze of white, flashy enough but useless for stealth or subtlety. Though still yellow, Joss' eyes are startlingly pale, lending an alert intensity to his expression that can make him look a bit crazed.

Joss.png


Abilities

What happens when a young boy convinced of his own invincibility acquires the ability to heal himself of his injuries? You get a boy who believes that a man's fighting spirit alone can rewrite the universe, erasing injuries and removing obstacles if only his determination is unbending.

Joss does not heal any better than any other werewolf with his Gift, but he is extremely good at ignoring pain. When a human would be about to collapse from his injuries, Joss rejects the existence of debilitating wounds for one last shot at winning the fight. He's still hurt, but he is capable of ignoring it and (for a short time) convincing his body to ignore it as well.


Personality

Joss has been described as "hero boy," a "child paladin," and "that cocky little bastard" on more than one occasion. By his own description, he is an unstoppable warrior, a shining pillar of fearless unhesitating justice and honor. The high standards of his Calling are turned inward more often than not, and his life is a constant struggle to live up to his own expectations.

When it comes to others, Joss trusts few people and almost no adults. It is his conviction that adults are all liars, and that as a man of relatively few years… they are his natural enemy. Even when he's helping them (which he still will, on general principle) he is constantly on guard for treachery.

However, his disappointment with others is not as difficult to deal with as his disappointment with himself, not least of which because his expectations of others are so low to begin with. Because of this he will often give a second chance to others, since it's possible that they only fail at life so badly because nobody like him was around to demonstrate a better way.

The long and short of it is that Joss is ruled by his Calling, and because of his constant disappointment in others, puts himself under a great deal of pressure to do "the right thing," as best he can define it.


Specifics

  • Birthplace: Vancouver, Canada
  • Education:
    • Public schooling until the plague hit, after which he was homeschooled by his stepmother.
    • He has not attended any of the informal classes available to surviving human children, preferring to patrol the city and catch up with textbooks when he has the spare time. The fact that some of Joss' education has been self-taught has resulted in a lopsided expertise in weaponsmithing, the warrior classes of various cultures across the world, and almost nothing he finds boring or tedious (higher math, geography, or literature).
  • Religion: Lapsed Jehovah's Witness. Joss hates religion. Adults lie, to themselves and to children. Religion is both a lie in itself, and a justification for further lies. At least, if Joss' experience is to be believed.
  • Sexuality: heterosexual

Background

Joss' family was strained early on by the difficulty in his birth, but his parents wanted more children. So they conceived again, and this time… this time the strain was too much on Melissa. The infant would have been Joss' little sister, and his mother bled out during the cesarian section. If his parents hadn't been strict Jehovah's Witnesses, perhaps a blood transfusion might have saved her. But… religion got in the way (something for which Joss has still not forgiven it).

Trafford, Joss' father, couldn't handle the loss of his wife. He distanced himself from his son and got a lot closer with the bottles in the cabinet. Their savings, their safety, and even their home eventually were lost to his habit. Eventually Trafford took up with a woman named Penny and he and Joss lived with her a while.

Joss was not satisfied. He felt certain that a man could do better for his family than this, and resolved to himself that he owed the world better. Still… he couldn't resent his father. Even at the tender age of nine, Joss knew something had changed for his father when Melissa hadn't come back from the hospital. Even if Trafford didn't seem to have time for him anymore, and even if Trafford sometimes got a little rough with him or Penny, and even if Trafford couldn'tseem to do much better for his family than pass out before hurting somebody… some people just… lack the essential fortitude to weather the injuries of fate.

When SRLV1 hit, Joss was ten. Things were bad at home, and nobody seemed to see. Nobody seemed to know or care or have the courage to stop it. When things began collapsing thanks to war and plague and fear and violence, Joss stepped up as best he could. Maybe these people wouldn't watch his back and maybe these people couldn't protect themselves any better than they could protect him. But Joss would do better.

He would do better.

Supplies were scarce. Threats were many. Most people didn't know what to do. Joss had to do better. Sometimes there were raids. Sometimes in attacks, supplies were stolen and people died. Joss had to do better. Sometimes there were animals, terrible and fast and fierce and absolutely unstoppable. Humans ran.

Joss had to do better.

Standing his ground with what little shotgun ammunition he could scavenge turned out to be an error in judgment, but then… Joss knew that. Success wasn't the point. The point was to MAKE a point, to show the others what the courage of a fighting man looked like, even in the face of certain death. Joss couldn't help his father and he couldn't save his mother and he'd never even known what it meant to have a little sister to look out for. He couldn't do anything about all that. But at least he could burn this once with the fire of righteous bravura before the universe sent him down the drain along with the rest of his family. What was certain death compared to that?

At least… death should have been sure. Even overpowered, his flesh torn by raiding teeth and scavenging claws, Joss lived. In dirt and blood and violence, one boy burned with the determination to continue fighting, continue surviving, continue beating the universe itself into submission to his will that it be just and good.

When he dragged himself back to his father's trailer, Joss found Trafford in a haze. He hadn't even realized his son had been gone for days. Joss didn't know yet what he had become, but he knew why he had survived.

Determination. Courage. Dedication to a fight beyond the borders of one man's life, and beyond the mean and petty limitations of the average flimsy cowardly soul. Joss knew why he had survived. He had survived because that was the way the universe turned.

Now he was something more than a human—less than a god but more than a man. Joss was something that no man or woman he knew had ever been before. But if he was a monster, then he would be the terror of monsters. If Joss was a killer, he would be a killer of killers.

And if Joss was still the boy that his mother knew just years before, he would be a hero of heroes. Nothing would stand in his way.


Relationships

  • Family: Melissa Hunter (mother, deceased), Penny Hunter (stepmother), Trafford Hunter (father).
  • Friends: All who love justice and freedom.
  • Lovers: There are some men who lead a life of endless struggle, a life full of peril and sacrifice. These men do not have time for soft words and gentle companionship from women. Joss is just such a man. Far too much left to do to be tied down yet.
  • Enemies: There are many villains and rogues and general assholes in the world. Joss counts each and every one a proper enemy, a foe whom he is obligated by honor and the fire of justice in his blood to obliterate. Most of these are grownups because, well, grownups are liars.
  • Acquaintances: Sasha Yavlinsky and Crest Damien Mani
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License